The Guardian reports that David Gould, former chief operating officer at the Defence Equipment and Support Organisation, stated in June 2007 that AWE would build a new Trident warhead. At a defence industry conference Mr Gould said: "The intention is to replace the entire Vanguard class submarine system. Including the warhead and missile."

Ms Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the number of civilian jobs in Scotland dependent on the Trident programme; what the locations are of those jobs; and how many there are at each site. [219728]

Des Browne: The latest available figure for civilian jobs that directly rely upon the Trident programme in Scotland is 859, as at December 2006. It was estimated at that point that there were a further 250 indirect civilian jobs based on employment relating to support activities to the Trident programme.

From issue 2662 of New Scientist magazine, 26 June 2008, page 18: You might think nuclear weapons have been carefully designed not to go off by accident. Yet more than 1700 of them have design flaws that could conceivably cause multiple warheads to explode one after another - an effect known as "popcorning" - according to a UK Ministry of Defence safety manual.

On Tuesday 10th June, Mr. Justice Simon refused the Nuclear Information Service (NIS) permission to bring a Judicial Review of the Government's White Paper, 'The Future of the United Kingdom's Nuclear Deterrent', published on 4 December 2006. Judge Simons did not accept that The White Paper's assertion of compatibility of the Government's decision to replace the UK's nuclear weapons system with its international law obligations requires adjudication by a Court.

Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the UK Trident warhead complies with the guideline that insensitive high explosive should be used for the supercharge in a nuclear weapon, as specified in JSP 538 regulation of the nuclear weapon programme, Annex G, on safety principles and guidelines for nuclear weapons systems. [209190]

The Scottish government has set up an expert group to investigate how best to get rid of nuclear weapons, the Sunday Herald can reveal. The group, to be chaired by Bruce Crawford MSP, the minister for parliamentary business, is seen by many as a crucial step towards making Scotland a nuclear-free nation - and could trigger a confrontation with Westminster.